Individually wrapped frozen confection or desert cones are well known. Specifically, frozen dessert cones have an edible cone-shaped container (e.g., a sugar cone or the like) which is filled with a freezable dairy product, such as ice cream, ice milk, frozen yogurt or the like. The filled cone is covered with a conformably shaped paper or foil wrapper which is usually closed at its upper end by a lid. When the frozen confection is desired to be consumed, the lid and wrapper are removed thereby allowing the cone and its frozen dairy product to be eaten.
The automated production of frozen dessert cones is well known, for example, through U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,768 to Getman (the entire content of which is expressly incorporated hereinto by reference). In general, frozen dessert cones are produced by intermittently advancing a nested cone assembly (comprised of the frustroconically shaped edible prebaked cone and its conformably shaped paper overwrap) through a succession of stations. Thus, for example, an atomized spray of chocolate (or other flavored syrup) may be sprayed on the interior surfaces of the edible cone prior to the cone being filled with a freezable dairy product. Thereafter, a topping of chocolate (or other flavored syrup) and nuts may be applied immediately upstream of a lid applicator. The finished product is then ejected from its conveyance track and subjected to freezing conditions.
Typically, multiple finished cones are packaged in box board containers and then shipped to retail outlets. The conventional technique to package frozen desert cones is to position them alternately head-to-tail. In such a manner, the alternating head-to-tail arrangement of multiple cones achieves a generally rectangular configuration which more easily allows them to be packaged in standard rectangularly shaped boxes. Transferring the cones from the discharge conveyor and into the boxes in such an alternating head-to-tail arrangement is conventionally accomplished manually. That is, a worker must manually retrieve multiple finished cones from the discharge conveyor and then arrange them in the head-to-tail manner described above--a very time consuming and repetitive endeavor.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable if transfer systems and methods were provided which enable elongate articles, such as frozen desert cones, to be reoriented from their production alignment and arranged alternately in a head-to-tail manner so that the alternating head-to-tail array of articles may the be packaged automatically (e.g., thereby avoiding the repetitive manual operations of conventional packaging operations). It is towards providing such reorientation and transfer systems and methods that the present invention is directed.
Broadly, the present invention is embodied in systems and methods whereby leading and following elongate articles aligned in a head-to-head orientation may be reoriented to form a head-to-tail oriented array of articles. Most preferably, the systems and methods of this invention serve to reorient and thereby transfer an array of multiple pairs of elongate articles from an initial vertical orientation to a side-by-side alternating head-to-tail horizontal orientation. When reoriented so as to be in a staggered, alternating side-by-side horizontal relationship, the multiple pairs of elongate articles may then be placed automatically into a suitable package.
Preferably the elongate articles handled by the present invention are frustroconically shaped frozen dessert cones with a conformable paper overwrap, and specific reference to the same will be made below. However, it is to be understood that virtually any elongate articles regardless of geometry could be handled using the principles of the present invention. When frozen dessert cones are handled, it is most preferable that the apparatus and methods of the present invention reorient an array of multiple pairs of the same so as to be in head-to-tail relationship. Such an orientation will more readily conform the reoriented array of cones to the interior of a box-shaped shipping container.
Thus, according to the present invention, frozen dessert cones may be transferred and reoriented from their production line and into a boxed condition without manual intervention. These and other aspects of the present invention will become more clear after careful consideration is given to the detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof which follow.